What Kind Of Hosting Is Needed For Video Streaming Sites?

The trend in videos as a marketing tool is not going away anytime soon. If anything, it is even getting more popular, with Cisco predicting that video will comprise 80% of all internet traffic by 2020. Videos done right are more engaging and messages are easier to grasp. Viewers can remember 95% of a message if it’s delivered via video and only 10% if via text. Hubspot’s survey found that conversion rates increase by 80% when video is embedded on the landing page.

Video streaming is the preferred way to show video content to users. It is instantly available and you can start viewing the content even before the whole file has downloaded, unlike in progressive downloading where you have to wait for the file to be completely downloaded before you can watch it. Another advantage of video streaming is, the file is not stored on the viewer’s hard disk, so it doesn’t eat up memory. That’s why YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix are very popular. The downside is, there has to be internet connection to use video streaming while a downloaded file can be viewed offline.

If you plan to include video streaming content in your website (and you really should,) you have to seriously think about your web hosting service provider and the package. A shared hosting plan will not be adequate for your disk space and bandwidth requirements. The resources available to you are limited and you have to compete with the other websites you’re sharing the server with.

The usual input/output speed for shared hosting is 2MB per second, which is not enough to handle more than two users at one time. The viewer will also encounter problems in watching your video. The slow speed will result in buffering, interrupting the viewing while waiting for enough video to be available. This is quite annoying, and the user experience will be unsatisfactory. Instead of drawing visitors to your site, you will be driving them away. Worse, your website could just suddenly be taken down for going over the limits of the resources given to you. Videos need more amounts of bandwidth and other resources, which are not available on a shared hosting plan.

A dedicated hosting solution is the ideal but the difference in monthly cost for the plan is significant. The VPS hosting plan is advisable. It’s priced more than shared hosting and considerably less than a having a dedicated server. Smaller video hosting websites will benefit from a virtual private server. It is in the midrange in pricing, and each site gets its own virtual server within a large physical machine shared by all its clients. You will still have your own private OS, RAM, bandwidth, and virtual CPU that cannot be used by the other sites. Uptime and site speed are consistent and dependable.

Most web host providers offer VPS hosting in various scales, with different specs and prices, so there’s sure to be one that will fit your needs and budget. And if you need to upgrade, you can get the higher plan.

The drawing and selling power of video content on websites is undeniable. A large percentage of users prefer to view a brand’s video streaming than to look at their social media posts. Business owners and webmasters are capitalizing on video to drive traffic and increase revenue. You should, too. Videos have many uses. They can be used for webinars, trainings, and tutorials. They can be instructional, showing how a product is used, or they can be entertaining content.

Another thing you should keep in mind is to make your website mobile-optimized, if it’s not a responsive web design. Users, especially the millennials, use their smartphones to view video. comScore says that 69% of media time of users is done on mobile. A website that is barely readable on a mobile device loses a lot in terms of promoting its business, attracting potential clients, and increasing sales. As mobile surpasses desktop in user preference, viewing the video streaming content on your website on a smartphone should be fast and always available. That’s what VPS hosting does for you.